This invention is directed to a coin-operated machine for vending and dispensing individual serving sized packets of concentrated food or drink intended to be mixed and diluted with water. It is common practice to package commodities such as cocoa, dried coffee, fruit-flavored drinks of various kinds, dehydrated broths and soups, etc. in generally flat semi-rigid packets. Such packets generally take the form of two sheets of metal foil or paper or synthetic resinous sheet material or laminates of these materials enclosing the concentrate between the sheets and sealed around the four edges. Alternatively, the packet may be formed from a single sheet folded over upon itself and sealed on three edges. In either event, the result is a semi-rigid package which, although generally flat, is of irregular contour and is difficult to stack, the thickness of the center portion of the packet being many times greater than the thickness of the sealed edges. Because of this, it has not heretofore been feasible to vend the products in such packets automatically in coin-operated machines. At the same time, because of the convenience in preparation of an individual serving, the food and beverage products so packaged are becoming increasingly popular and there is demand for means for automatically dispensing such products as in offices, employee lunchrooms, school lunchrooms, and the like. The present invention is directed toward solving the problems of dispensing irregularly shaped packets.